HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN 01.25.2011 CC-WThe City Council of the City of Georgetown, Texas, met in Regular Session on the above date with Mayor
George Garver presiding.
Council Present:
Patty Eason, Gabe Sansing, Danny Meigs, Bill
Sattler, Pat Berryman, Dale Ross, Tommy
Gonzalez
Council Absent:
All Council Present
11
Staff Present:
Paul E. Brandenburg, City Manager; Mark Sokolow, City Attorney; Jessica Brettle, City Secretary; Micki
Rundell, Chief Financial Officer; Jim Briggs, Assistant City Manager; Trina Bickford, Purchasing
Manager; Mark Thomas, Economic Development Director; Elizabeth Cook, Community Development
Director; Tom Benz, Systems Engineering Director
�• �. •• T/• 1111 ••111 1 111 • • • I• i �`TI
A Overview of the City's Purchasing Contract Process -- Trina Bickford, Purchasing Manager and Micki Rundell,
Chief Financial Officer
Berryman, Ross absent.
Rundell said this new contract process is something the purchasing department has been working on with the
legal department for several months. She said the goal is to increase productivity, efficiency and accuracy. She
introduced the City's Purchasing Manager, Trina Bickford, to the City Council. With a Powerpoint presentation,
Bickford reviewed the new contract processing in the City.
Berryman arrived at the dais.
Bickford said the purchasing department has been working with the legal department as well as others to come
up with a standard form for routine purchases and services. She noted, in order to accommodate growth, the
City is trying to come up with standardized processes and documents. She said the purpose of this is to
increase the consistency between the documents the city works on. She said these new forms will decrease the
occurrence of mistakes while items are being processed. She spoke about how a standards for City contracts
and documents will benefit the City and reiterated it will increase consistency, improve efficiency and increase
productivity. She said the Division Directors as well as vendors will be able to access the different standardized
forms as well. She explained what "standardization" means and added it means using the same forms for
routine transactions. She said all forms will be pre -approved by the City Attorney and by city council. She said
legal will sign off on the contracts and added there will be some non-standard contracts depending on the need
that will be reviewed one by one. She described the role of the legal department in this process. She said they
will pre approve and prepare the standardized forms, verify that key terms are included in cover sheets and
review the contract once the document is compiled by the purchasing department. She said the non standard
forms will not be going through this same process and will need to be reviewed on a singular basis. She said
the purchasing department will continue to coordinate the bid process and after council approval, the
department will compile final standard documents in accordance with key terms approved by the council. She
City Council Meeting Minutes/
Page 1 of 3 Pages
described the impacts to the city council and added the agenda package will now include a summary of the key
contract terms for the standardized contracts. She said these explanations would be included on the agenda
item cover sheets. She said any changes made to the standard forms will be brought to the city council for
approval. She said change orders will be brought back to the council as well. She said the benefits of having a
standardized form is that it reduces the size of agenda packets, gives staff a more well defined process that the
documents will go through and it will allow staff to pay more attention to details. She said there will be minimal
review by the legal department, other City staff and vendors for new projects using standardized forms as only
the specifications of each contract will change. She noted this will also prevent duplication of work throughout
different areas in the city. She said standardized documents are easier for vendors and consultants to
understand because they will see the same things over and over again. She said the city will keep the forms up
to date and on the website for vendors and the general public to review. She explained the next steps in the
process and said staff is asking council to approve the process as well as the standardized forms on the next
agenda.
Mayor asked and Bickford said this is a major change in that most people are creating the documents and
contracts from scratch. She noted it is pretty major to come up with something that is going to be considered
the standard Citywide. She added, however, some of the contracting documents the city has used has been
standardized to some degree. Sattler reviewed the process as it stands for the standardized forms. He asked
and Bickford said, for non standard forms, staff will try to use the standard forms and modify them unless the
vendor requires the city to use their forms. Sattler asked and Bickford said, as much as possible, staff will start
with our standard form and then adjust those to accommodate the vendor. She added, if the city must use the
vendor's form, it will go to legal for review and will be a much longer process. Sattler said and Bickford agreed
the City will try to use the standard forms as much as possible. Sattler said the non-standard forms is what
scares them the most because there is a higher risk. Sokolow asked that Assistant City Attorney, Bridget
Chapman, speak more about the master service agreement forms and construction forms and what staff has
been doing to standardize those. Chapman described how the legal department has worked with staff to come
up with the standardized forms. She said they have been trying to go through the forms the City has been using
and standardizing them. She said the legal department has gone back and looked at previous master services
agreement and construction documents and pulled from those the best terms and format in order to create the
standardized forms. She said the idea was the gather the best aspects from all forms and use that information to
create the standard document. Berryman asked and Chapman said their goal is to expedite the process of
doing business with vendors. Mayor asked and Rundell said would like to have this on the February 8, 2011
council agenda and expedite the process as quickly as possible.
B Southeast Development Zone -- Paul E. Brandenburg, City Manager and Mark Thomas, Economic Development
Director
Brandenburg said this discussion started almost a year ago to identify areas of the city that had potential
development and add infrastructure to those areas to anticipate development. He said the 4A Board sat down
and decided upon areas of the City that were ready to go for development. He said, as the economy picks up
and competition increases, the City would like to have land ready for development to come in. He said the area
identified for this project is what staff calls the Southeast Development Zone, bordered by Inner Loop, 1-35, FM
1460 and Westinghouse Road. He said the 4A Board noted the need for this is now to get moving on this
property. He said the goal is to try and be shovel ready, as this is the closest area where infrastructure could
easily be built. He said the timing is a concern to try and get all of this in place. He said staff has gotten
together to come up with a timeline and determine how to accomplish these goals. He described how the City
will do this and said the city will need to identify the property, the current zoning, land use/values, develop an
annexation schedule for the land in that property, identify all infrastructure, create landowner agreements,
creation of a tax incremental reinvestment zone and special assessment district for the area as well as the
development of utility agreements with other providers. He said the City would want to put in infrastructure now
in order to gain benefit in the future. He said the purpose of this item is to tell Council what staff is doing and
determine if Council is favorable to this plan. He said some of the things on the "how" list could take a year to
accomplish.
Gonzalez asked and Brandenburg said there are some landowners in the area that are in favor of this
development and some that are not. He said, if landowners are not ready to develop, the City will not force
them to do so until they are ready. He noted, for those that do want to develop, the city wants to be able to
provide them with the infrastructure needed to do so. Gonzalez asked and Brandenburg said an annexation for
100 acres would take three to four months and infrastructure for five to six months. He said the whole area
would take about three years to prep. He said the City is about a good year away from having the area ready to
go to accommodate for development.. Sattler said this is a great idea and it is planning for the future. He
asked what the benefits will be to the landowners in this area. Brandenburg said they will have access to the
City's utilities once they are annexed, their land value will go up and they will have sales tax revenue. He said
City Council Meeting Minutes/
Page 2 of 3 Pages
staff can run a model to show people what they will get out of the investment. He said the main benefit would be
to be annexed into the City and gain infrastructure. Sansing said this is all well and good and added this idea
was presented to the Georgetown Transportation Enhancement Corporation as well. He spoke about preparing
for economic development now as well as for the future. He mentioned the extension of roads throughout
important areas of the city. Brandenburg said staff has looked into moving forward with the Snead Drive
extension. Brandenburg agreed with Sansing and added there are many things the City could be working on
now as well. Sansing said he wanted to make sure the City isn't ignoring the current issues. Berryman said this
current discussion is a separate issue and the goal is to plan out for the future. Berryman thanked Brandenburg
for the work on this. Brandenburg said any expenditure of funds or decisions on this issue will come back to
Council for approval.
Recessed to Executive Session under Sections 551.071, 551.072 and 551.087 -- 4:33 PM
Returned to Open Session and adjourned -- 6:01 PM
The meeting was adjourned at 10:30 PM.
Mayor Ggorge Garver / Pity Secrelafy Jessica Brettle
City Council Meeting Minutes/
Page 3 of 3 Pages